Chatham Hockey Falls in Heartbreaker

MORRISTOWN — The Chatham ice hockey team suffered yet another heartbreaking loss as it fell 3-2 to Morris Knolls High School on Thursday at Mennen Arena.

Though the Cougars were the underdog in the game, they fought hard and skated with the Eagles the entire game. Head Coach Harvey Cohen said he knew going into the game it was going to be a tough matchup.

The Eagles, who came into the game ranked No. 6 in the Star Ledger's Top 20, maintained their perfect record and improved to 10-0-1. Their only blemish of the season was a 1-1 tie against Ridge High School on Jan. 2.

Morris Knolls also holds first place in the Mennen Division of the Morris County Secondary Schools Ice Hockey League with a 7-0 record in the division. After Randolph High School beat Mendham High School 8-0, Chatham fell to last place in the division with a 1-4-1 divisional record.

"We have [Morristown-Beard] on Saturday," Morris Knolls Head Coach Walt Keiper said. "Obviously the more points we can get, we're on a nice little roll here, we're 10-0-1 now, so any momentum we can get going into Saturday's game—another divisional game, big rivalry."

Morris Knolls got on the board first with a goal from junior forward Thomas Larkin, assisted by junior forward Dillon Garrity with 9:02 let in the second period.

Chatham bounced right back, though, as senior captain Steven Valeri tied it up less than a minute later off assists from senior forward Alex Guider and junior defenseman Christian Ortolani. Toward the end of the period, the Cougars put up their second unanswered goal to take their first lead of the game with a goal from sophomore forward Alex Rauter with 1:46 left in the second period.

Despite taking the lead into the third period, the Cougars did not hold it for long. With a power play opportunity, Chatham let up a shorthanded goal less than two minutes into the period. Morris Knolls senior captain Brian Manning got in on a breakaway and beat Chatham senior goalie Charlie Boles to the top left corner of the net to tie the game at 2-2.

Earlier in the week, Cohen said his team needed to kill the power play more effectively, but this time around, the Cougars could not even prevent a shorthanded goal.

"We were sluggish through the first two periods, but we knew we had to come out down going into the third period," Keiper said. "We haven't had that too often this season, so it was good to come out, get a quick jump on them and get the momentum back on our side."

The momentum shift held throughout the third period. Morris Knolls put the game away with 7:05 left in the game when sophomore forward Billy Nichols scored the game-winner off assists from sophomore forward Connor Manning and freshman defenseman Zack Simmons.

The Cougars had several missed opportunities in the final minutes as they pulled their goalie during a power play to have a 6-on-4 advantage, but they were unable to produce, losing their fourth straight game to fall to 5-6-1 overall.

Chatham looks to turn its season around Saturday as the team takes on Morristown High School at Mennen Arena at 4:15pm.